Posted on 07/18/2007 10:10:35 AM PDT by RDTF
WASHINGTON - A Raytheon Co. satellite-guided artillery shell, the first weapon of its kind, killed a top al- Qaeda leader in Iraq, the U.S. military said. The firing of two new 155mm “Excalibur” shells was part of a combined Army and Air Force assault July 14 on a meeting house in Arab Jabour south of Baghdad directed against the leader, Abu Jurah, and 14 associates, U.S. forces said today. Raytheon, the world’s biggest missile maker and Southern Arizona’s largest employer, developed the Excalibur with Bofors Defence of Sweden. The statement e-mailed from Baghdad said Abu Jurah was “the top target” in al-Qaeda south of Baghdad, responsible for a terrorist cell that made improvised roadside bombs and suicide vehicle bombs and fired mortars at U.S. troops.
The attack marked the U.S. military’s first acknowledgement that the new precision-guided weapon has been used in Iraq. In combat testing before deployment, the weapon demonstrated accuracy within 20 feet (6 meters) of its target, a precision designed to minimize civilian casualties and accidental U.S. military deaths in a war that is increasingly urban. An unguided 155mm shell can miss its target by as much as 900 feet or 280 meters. The Excalibur has a 50-pound warhead. The Army wanted a weapon with a much smaller warhead than the 200- pound charge on its only precision guided ground-based mobile rocket system, officials said. Abu Jurah was killed by troops from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, who fired the two Excalibur shells, destroying the meeting house, the statement said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at azstarnet.com ...
$39K is cheap, cheap, cheap...
Bump for home
Up your nose with a 155mm!
LOL...it’s reports like these that give me the warm fuzzies...god bless the USA and Corporate America!
I hope that's got some R&D costs embedded. Otherwise it's too expensive.
The AC-130 gunship series has been able to do that for decades. I saw a video of one putting a 40mm round in the left hip pocket of a dummy from 16,000 ft in pitch darkness.
While it’s interesting to read about what they killed him with - and I’d like pictures! - I’d much rather hear about how they FOUND him, how his location became known.
I dunno...less rounds needed, less rounds through the tube and less $$$ paid in collateral claims just might mitigate that price tag a bit.
Not painful at all. It is the ultimate in stand off weapons. Can be fired from 10-20 miles away and the enemy never hears it coming. All you need is someone in the air or on the ground to paint the target, acquire the gps co-ordinates and bingo, they are gone. Much cheaper than using planes and their gps guided munitions. I believe some of these are being fielded in Afghanistan in the near future. Will be perfect for the kid of cross border strikes I think we are presently contemplating. If you start hearing about pakistani tribal area having a rash of premature suicide bomg explosions, you should not be surprised.
Much cheaper than using f-16’s and the like with their gps munitions.
Supposing the $39K is close to a true cost, the majority must go to making the electronics and guidance able to withstand the shell's acceleration. That is avoided in an SGB so presumably there'd be a lot of savings. OTOH, costs more to operate aircraft than artillery.
Own the stock. Love the company even more now.
His boss was captured on July the 4th and he ratted him out!
Below, a nice video clip about the Excalibur missile, an excellent example of American-Swedish-British cooperation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XLr24-YrGU
Brief overview (at Wikipedia), containing links to many web sites containing more detailed info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM982_Excalibur
Cheers from Europe!
Not to mention cost. Those things have to be, or will be, cheaper than missiles.
I know it's unfashionable on both sides of the political spectrum to speak of war as a police action, but from where I stand this has been the position most desired by the United States.
Police are not interested in chess games or fair fights. Their goal is to have overwhelming force and, through intimidation, stand the enemy down without firing a shot.
War happens when forces are perceived to be approximately equal, and there is a chance for either side to win.
When governments are functional, conflicts takes place in the arena of politics.
I like the idea of firing anything named xm-982 at al queda.
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